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Archive for the ‘Araucaria Ecotours’ Category
Eco-friendly way of exploring Brisbane
August 1st, 2010 by Ronda
Some of our guests have come to Brisbane only to do our wildlife tours, arriving on the morning of the tour or the nigt before, and are then dropped off at the airport at the end of the tour.
There is actually quite a lot that Brisbane has to offer, both around the city centre (museum, botanic gardens, Southbank and Roma Street Parklands, ethnic cafes, the only mangrove boardwalk in an Australian capital city, ferries along the river…) and throughout the Greater Brisbane region, with its wonderful bushland reserves (Araucaria Ecotours operate wildlife and bushwalking day tours here).
A new tour group helps you to explore Brisbane by foot and bicycle. Shaun Gilchrist is an enthusiastic and friendly guy who grew up here and now works for Brisbane Urban Adventures. So if you’d like to consider an extra day or two exploring Brisbane in an environmentally friendly way while you’re here, visit the site and get in touch with Shaun. His tours and ours could be a good complement to each other and you could develop your own package around them.
Albert’s lyrebirds seen in Border Ranges National Park
July 2nd, 2010 by RondaWe quite often hear the Albert’s lyrebirds during their breeding season (winter) in both Border Ranges National Park and Lamington National Park but see them more rarely so were excited to see two of them yesterday near Brindle Creek in Border Ranges NP. Unfortunately the view was too brief for photography.
Lyrebirds are confined to Australia, and are out largest passerines (songbirds). The males are quite possibly the world’s greatest mimics, and also do an impressive dance to attract the female, bringing their lyre-like tail over their heads and shimmering it like a water fountain. They also show some primitive characteristics that provide one of the arguments for the Australian section of Gondwana being the birthplace of the passerines.
The superb lyrebird is found from southeast Queensland down to Victoria, but the Albert’s is confined to the wetter rainforests and tall moist eucalypt forests of the southeast Queensland / northeast New South Wales border regions, as far south as Evans Head (south of Ballina) and north to Tamborine Mountain (south of Brisbane). It is regarded as vulnerable, and threatened by habitat changes and feral predators in much of its range, but hopefully will have a long future in the extensive protected forests of the Border Ranges
Outback tour April 2010: frogs, birds and floods
April 26th, 2010 by Ronda
“Let’s hope we drive out of this weather” I said as we endured Brisbane’s peak-hour morning traffic under grey drizzly skies, and our guests fervently agreed. We walked in light rain to look at captive bilbies in an attractive little park in Ipswich (also quolls, black cockatoos, wombats, buff-banded rail, magpie geese and other native species) then continued on to the west.
Next morning we walked across the Balonne River under partly blue skies, noting recent flood damage, into what I consider the true outback – no more farms, just free-range stock, native semi-arid woodlands and plenty of red dust. And from then on we enjoyed more and more blue sky, sunny weather and starry nights.
Within half an hour of driving we saw our first emu – the first of many – and soon afterward our first Major Mitchell cockatoos feeding in roadside trees., occasionally raising their beautiful red and yellow crests.
Three beautiful frogs amazed us a little further down the road. This was broad daylight, and here was a holy cross toad crossing the road! I was unaware that holy cross toads occurred this far north,and had never before actually seen one, but nothing can look like a holy cross toad except a holy cross toad, with its wonderful pattern of yellow, red and black bumps. It’s only this bumpiness that gives it the name of ‘toad’ – it’s really a frog. Nearby was a sedge frog (about the furthest west they appear) and a water-holding frog with brilliant mossy pattern. There were still puddles of water from the recent floods along the roadside, and this surely had something to do with all these frogs actively hopping around under blue skies.
Other wildlife seen en route to Cunnamulla included mulga snake, Centralian bearded dragon, yellow-billed spoonbill, royal spoonbill, white-necked heron, black kite, plumed whistling duck, white-breasted woodswallow, white-winged chough, apostlebird and spiny-cheeked honeyeter. There were also many feral goats and a family of very inquisitive sub-adult emus who approached for a closer and closer view of us while their father waited nervously in the background.
Approaching Currawinya National Park we saw our first western grey kangaroos, then eastern greys and a brown falcon, and a large black feral pig that startled us by suddenly hurtling across the road in front of the vehicle.
More frogs (green treefrogs, emerald-spotted treefrogs and purple treefrogs) and lizards (geckos and a sandswimmer) awaited us at our accommodation in Hungerford (a bortder town with a current population of eight: we do leave the crowds behind on these tours!). Our pre-breakfast birding walk in the morning revealed ringneck parrot, royal spoonbills, great egret, white-necked heron, whistling kite, white-breasted woodswallow and plenty of spiny-cheeked and white-plumed honeyeaters.
We heard from the proprietor of the hotel that they had been flooded in for three months, and movements south were still restricted.
The road to the lakes was still flooded, but the ranger later told us the birdlife there has not yet substantially increased with the extra water. Give it a couple of months or so he said, when the algae and invertebrates have had time to build up and prompt more feeding and breeding. Red kangaroos, little corella cockatoos, budgerigars, cockateils, wood ducks, white ibis and more emus appeared on the way to the Granites. Many dead goats were seen near the Granites, and the ranger also later told us they and the kangaroos had been severely harassed by mosquitoes after the floods, many to the point where they couldn’t feed or rest. We all sympathized even with the ferals, agreeing this would be a most uncomfortable death.
A sample of the bilby fence was inspected at the Woolshed, and our guests had already learned about the efforts here to save the unique little bilby.
There were more mozzies than we’d ever camped amongst before at the Paroo River, but those in the tents with zippered doors had no problem. Those of us in hammocks smeared ourselves with insect repellent and kept the hammocks swinging as much as possible through the night. It still felt good out there in the open, listening to owls and watching the changing moods of moonlight, moonless starlight (after the moon had set) and the gradual brightening of the sky and wakening of birds with the approach of dawn.
There were three takers for the mudbath at Eulo, and all enjoyed the experience and agreed their skin felt great afterward.
The birding hotspot of Bowra was a new experience for all of us, and we realized you really need a lot more than one night to explore it properly. We found red-backed kingfisher, brown treecreeper, crested bellbird, white-winged chough, whistling kite and many other birds, as well as a Bennet’s legless lizard, turtle and freshwater mussels.. A nice sandy ‘beach’ by one of the waterholes made a comfortable spot to sit and sip fruit juices while wacthing birds come and go.
This time I remembered to collect a bottle of red sand from the roadside before we left the outback – to be scattered amongst the models of numbat, bilby, thorny devil and other outback creatures in the Australian habitat display of our Wildlife Ecology Centre
Our next outback tours will be September 7 – 13, to include National Bilby Day in Charleville (7 days instead of 6, additional $165), and October 18-23 (possibly with 2 nights at Bowra to explore the birdlife better).
Easter Weekend activities for kids
April 19th, 2010 by RondaBeing a platypus, creeping up on ‘kangaroos’ and a treasure hunt for outback bikkies were all part of the fun on Eatser Saturday this year.
Fourteen children with their families, aged from 2 to about 10, camped in the Andrew Drynan Reserve next to the Araucaria property, and joined us for a couple of hours of activities on the Saturday.
The little ones got the first turn, with the older ones helping out, finding all colours of the rainbow - natural objects only, such as flowers, leaves and stones.
Darren and our intern Delphine then became ‘kangaroos’, crouching next to our wrought-iron kanga, while the children practiced their skill of quiet approach for photography or wildlife observation, going back tot the starting line near the bunya if one of the kangas heard them.
A treasure hunt took them all searching for clues hidden in many niches. This was a cooperative game rather than competitive, and led to a box of ‘outback animal’ biscuits to share.
Some of the initial energies having now been dissipated a little, Ronda showed one group (with their parents) through the WIldlife Information Centre while Darren and Delphine took others through the butterfly walk and down to the creek. In the Centre, children could don a platypus mask to get a feeling for how the platypus searches for electrical vibrations from its prey, as well exploring as our walk through time, Australian habitats, local wildlife and other exhibits.
That night Ronda brought her guitar to the campsite, accompanied by Darren and Delphine, for about an hour with the families going through songs old and new, from pre-school to country-western and more. It didn’t seem to matter too much that occasionally there were two songs being sung simultaneously. After a few toasted marshmallows and a glass of red wine, we retired to bed in preparation for the early rise the next day (5.00am to set up a wildlife stall at the Rathdowney Heritage Festival)
Outback tour fully booked
March 3rd, 2010 by Ronda
The banks of the Paroo River in the national park provided a great place for bird-watching
Our outback tour for April is now fully booked.
We will be having another outback tour in the second week of September, with a special deviation to Charleville to coincide with the National Bilby Day Festival
We will also be running an outback tour in October
At present our campsite in Currawinya is flooded but should re-open later this month, and there should be no problem by the time of our tour in late April - if not there are some nice little country pubs in the vicinity. The waterbird life should be great this time around!
Our next Australian Outback wildlife tour
January 19th, 2010 by RondaThe banks of the Paroo River in the national park provided a great place for bird-watching
The next tour to the outback with Araucaria Ecotours will run from 2lst to 26th April 2010
Both the vast lakes – one saltwater and one freshwater, and important breeding grounds for waterbirds – are now full, and the Paroo River (where we wll camp one night) should be flowing well.
On this trip, for the first time, we will also be spending a night at Bowra Station, a species-rich outback station now owned by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy.
There are a very few spaces left on this tour – let us know if you’d like to join in
We are also running a special version of the tour in September to coincide with Ntaional Bilby Day celebrations, making a detour to Charleville for this purpose.
Araucaria Ecotours wins another award
September 25th, 2009 by RondaAraucaria Ecotours were pleased to win the Nature Tourism section at the Scenic Rim Tourism Awards night in August 2009
Outback tour October 2009
September 19th, 2009 by RondaOur next Australian outback tour will run from 13-18th October this year. This will be the last outback tour until March or April next year, as the weather out west gets a bit hot for comfort during the summer motnhs.
kangaroos near Currawinya National Park
So if you’d like to experience the genuine Aussie outback this year – red kangaroos, plenty of emus, ranglelands and wilderness rather than farmland, red soils, semi-arid shrublands, lots of parrots and lizards … email us soon (only 4 places remaining on this tour)
First outback tour a success
May 2nd, 2009 by Ronda
kangaroos near Currawinya National Park
I don’t feel like I’m in the outback until after St George (about 500 km west of Brisbane). That’s where red sand country begins, there are rangelands instead of farms and long stretches between towns. Our guests, both keen bird photgraphers, agreed it was worth the drive.
Stopping many times to let red kangaroos and emus cross the road, watching brolgas, major mitchell cockatoos and blue bonnet parrots, and soaking in warm mud that left our skins feeling wonderful left us with no doubt that we were having a true outback experience
Cockatoo coming to drink at water hole
Currawinya National Park was our main destination, famous as an internationally-important Ramsar-listed waterbird breeding site and as the place where captive-bred bilbies were released into an extensive (and secret) area surrounded by cat/fox/rabbit proof fencing. Uniofrtunately the large saltwater lake was almost dry, and although the freshwater lake was full, there had not been enough time for the small invertebrates to build up to a point where many waterbirds could make extensive use of it, so there were not as many of these as we had hoped. Still, the landbirds around some of the waterholes and the whole experience of being in wide expanses of semi-arid vegetation kept the excitement levels high, and it was a delight to see wild brolgas up close..
The banks of the Paroo River in the national park provided a great place for bird-watching
We used a mixture of a high-quality motel, a cattle station and a small outback pub for accommodation, and next time may also camp within the national park near a spot where we saw many birds in the trees near the Paroo River. Meals ranged from picnics to outback pub fare (surprisingly good) to an award-winning restaurant (a bit of luxury for our first and last evenings in the Riverland Motel at St George).
We rose at or before dawn most mornings to maximize our viewing of birdlife, relaxing in the warmer part of the day as most animals very sensibly do (do you recall the song ‘Mad Dogs and Englishmen’?), ready for dusk when wildlife again became active.
A new experience for all of us was the mudbath at the Eulo Date Farm. I tried it myself mainly for the novelty, but was so impressed I’ve decided to treat myself to one each time we pass through Eulo (the last town before reaching Currawinya). For $60.00 (not currently included in the tour price) you relax for half an hour in warm mud that is packed with nutrients that have accumulated for mellenia, while enjoying a plate of dried fruit and nuts and cold water and a choice of tea, coffe or wine as the nutrients soak into your skin. This mud is then washed off, you dry yourself and apply a cleansing mud all over your body, let it thoroughly dry and wash that off as well, before rubbing in a moisturiser. I can’t remember my skin feeling so good, and the effect lasted not for hours but for days.
Another new experience for me was a detour we made to the town of Thargomindah, the third town in the wolrd (after London and Paris) to have electric street lights using hydro-electric power. The electricity was generated from high-pressure hot water from an artesian bore, and there are demonstrations each afternoon (which this time we arrived at the worng time for), lighting up one of the original lamps. The bridge into the town was flooded due to heavy rain to the north, just enough for us to splash the red dust from Currawinya off our vehicle as we drove through.
Our next outback tour will be in late May which, if there is sufficient interest, could be extended for two or three days to include the Channel country to the west, where there is currently a profusion of birdlife due to the flooding of waterways. In September we are planning to etend the tour for a couple of days to enjoy the celebrations of National Bilby Day at Charleville. The final outback tour for the year will probably be in the first week of October, and should be great for reptile activity as well as nesting land-birds.